Tethering - Does AT&T Know? - Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General

I got my Tilt 2 and love it. I plan to tether it occasionally with my laptop. The question is, does AT&T know when I tether? To tether "officially" costs like $60/month. The regular Smartphone dataplan is $35/month. If I tether on occasion with the Smartphone dataplan, will I get busted?

I believe the short answer is 'no' AT&T cant tell the difference between data usage when its browsing the internet or whether its from a computer which has been tethered.
However, if you start using tethering to download 1GB torrents everyday... well, they'll see you're going nuts on usage, and that will cause problems.
As you said, if you do it only 'occasionally' it wont matter. I tether on a bi-weekly basis when I travel for work to surf the net and check emails, and its never been an issue.

I think the agreement from most of the other xda forums about this is, don't go crazy with it. When I was with AT&T, I tethered my laptop everyday at work. My last bill showed 1,709,206 KB of data usage. I have run similar bills regularly. They keep it a non issue by squashing your bandwidth. That way, their servers are not bogged down with your tethering.
From talking to a person who worked for AT&T for four years, the answer was that you might (or will) get dinged at 5 gigs for a single month. That's when they roll you over to the tethering account. I think AT&T is pretty lax about it because they do list the service as "unlimited data". If you get caught, call AT&T and you can probably get it reversed because it's supposed to be "unlimited data".
Can they tell if your doing it? From a web developers standpoint, you can always determine what browser is sending requests in the message header. That's how some websites like yahoo know that you are on a mobile phone browser and default you to their mobile landing page. Obviously, you cannot be using the latest version of Internet Explorer from your phone. If someone at AT&T really wanted to know if you were tethering, they could figure it out. I just wouldn't imagine it's legal for them to go into the data and check - it'd be like listening in on your phone call to someone.

Related

[Q] Will T-Mo really be able to tell when you're tethering?

Can someone explain to me how T-Mo will be able to tell the difference between regular browsing on the G2 and tethering? I use the wireless tether for root users and the usb tether for root users apps. I have a feeling that as long as you're not constantly getting your bandwidth throttled from going over the data cap you won't get charged. I guess we'll find out this week as their tethering plans are starting on sunday.
T-mobile has a application I believe.. thats what I've been hearing... That you get charged $10 the moment you activate it. But T-mobile will know a tether user from a regular bandwidth user, they caught me for tethering on my G1.. said I use A LOT of data... way over 5GB worth...
creepinm3 said:
T-mobile has a application I believe.. thats what I've been hearing... That you get charged $10 the moment you activate it. But T-mobile will know a tether user from a regular bandwidth user, they caught me for tethering on my G1.. said I use A LOT of data... way over 5GB worth...
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They wont know, since data is data. When you stream media or use youtube, that takes a lot of data. They will throttle your speed after the 5gb, but I "heard" there's a loop hole in the system...By switching the 2G only for around an hour and going back to 3G only, your phone will get back the full speed. i only use tether when not in wifi area or home or for PS3 to increase pc bandwidth. Maybe they do have an app, but people have been tether for years on diff phones. There are other tether apps besides froyo one, easythether, pdanet, barnacle,etc. The android price is already high for no good reason, and we should get the free tethering, cause other phones have cheaper data.I dont see why android gets a higher data package, before my plan was around 50, now its like 80 a month.
If you currently have unlimited data, you will be grandfathered in as of 11/14 and will not be charged for tethering.
This came straight from my T-Mobile rep.
rwbarnes67 said:
If you currently have unlimited data, you will be grandfathered in as of 11/14 and will not be charged for tethering.
This came straight from my T-Mobile rep.
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i am sorry, but thats like saying a gnome told you
CHECK THIS OUT. I had issues earlier with roaming on wifi tether. So I redownloaded the (root) wifi tether to see if tmo was capping me. Well? This is the address that popped up both times on both stock and root wifi tether {http://offers.t-mobile.com/tethering/admin/roaming.jsp} after the page told me that it can't be redirected.I believe this address is in the programming on the sim. When you tether, look at the bottom left of your web page where it tells you the progress of that page. You will see "offers.t-mobile.com". Your page gets directed there first than back to you. That's how they now. Funny thing is, I had roaming tether this morning at 03:30 cst. Noon comes around and nothing. It works fine on their network (not roaming). To answer the golden question if tmo can tell if we are tethering or not? YES!! Tmo verified that for me today without asking. Tether charges will take place on the 14th and we will be notified first to have the choice. They said now that they have the HSPA+ network that they now have control of tether. And also mentioned that other networks have been doing this. "This is a business and we have to make money too" Tmo rep.
This issue can be argued by usps by going to tmobile.com and going to customer relations link and there you find a physical address to headquarters. I was told they will reply to your complaint,concern or comments.
I will be writing them when I get in from Washington.
edit; I just checked for the address at the bottom of the page while on tmo network (not roaming) and I did not see the afore mentioned. maybe it only shows while roaming. IDK
Edit; 11/13 15:17cst:/
Roaming issue fixed. Flashed a repacked stock rom. Fixed all issues I was having after flashing bb 03.
rwbarnes67 said:
If you currently have unlimited data, you will be grandfathered in as of 11/14 and will not be charged for tethering.
This came straight from my T-Mobile rep.
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apzalo said:
i am sorry, but thats like saying a gnome told you
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Exactly. My wife works for T-mobile. She has worked on the sales floor, in the call centers, and often goes to the trainings at corporate in Bellevue, WA. But she would be the first person to tell you that the majority of the crap that reps say is either completely unsubstantiated rumors, or completely made up out of thin air. T-mobile knows that their entry level employees in the call centers and retail shops, are too stupid to be trusted with anything other than the basic info needed to do their job. Even in management, she is only very rarely privileged to information that isn't already floating around online. Most of their employees don't understand their tech, products, and services anymore than what they can read off of the very basic scripts and trainings they give them. The people working for T-mo that are truly passionate about things, and actually know details like this, are not the people you get to talk to, and usually aren't the types to go blabbing what they know.
Unless what the rep is telling you has been leaked or confirmed by other sources, 90% of the time it's complete BS, or they just read it online like the rest of us.
Sent from my rooted and OCed turbo space abacus using the power of positive thinking and a toothpick.
while i agree to an extent, reps don't know anything about their jobs or the phones. most reps get their info from tmonews or XDA just like we do. i have gone into my t-mo store on many occasions and asked questions and watched as the rep pulled up tmo news on the comp or xda app on their phone. reps are useless for info
etjrowe said:
T-mobile knows that their entry level employees in the call centers and retail shops, are too stupid to be trusted with anything other than the basic info needed to do their job.
...
Sent from my rooted and OCed turbo space abacus using the power of positive thinking and a toothpick.
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As a T-Mobile tech service rep, I take great exception to this. Not all of us "too stupid" to know what's going on.
Having said that, it pisses me off to no end when other reps give out inaccurate info. I pride myself in knowing my stuff and doing it right. I never present any rumor as fact, nor do I make stuff up to placate customers.
So you can take your assumptions about me and shove them someplace unpleasant. Good day to you, sir.
p.s. But you are right that this whole "grandfathered in for free tethering" sounds like complete BS to me. Damn these reps making us look bad
I don't care about the data cap to be honest, I don't spend that much time outside of an actual wi-fi area. But I still have yet to see a legitimate, no BS answer as to whether or not T-Mobile will know that a person is tethering. Will the App itself report to T-Mobile, because to me, that seems to be the only way that "tethered data" and "smartphone data" can be differentiated by T-Mobile.

Tmobile has put a stop to my tethering.

So basically yesterday I am cruising the web via wifi tether on my laptop, and boom I get a redirect to a tmobile site saying I need to add wifi hotspots to my plan.
Tried a usb tether, same result. Tried an ics rom, as I was on the latest ota, still same result.
Anyone else experienced this? Or discovered a work around?
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
For the benefit of others, would you mind describing your tethering habits (e.g. how often, how long, what kind of browsing are you doing (youtube, just reading news, etc))
Yeah that's a good idea actually. I have the 10gb fake "unlimited" plan. My phone is my only means of internet access at home, so I've been using close to or just over 10gb a month for probably the past 6 months.
Had att internet, it was garbage slow, and my phone was literally way faster, so I cancelled att, and have been wifi tethering ever since.
The past month I also did away with television bc being that I am so busy with school and work, it was a waste of money paying 100 a month for something I don't use. Streamed a few episodes of family guy and American dad, and hit my data limit really fast. Throttle speed is basically useless for those of you that have not had the displeasure.
Anyway perhaps all that heavy usage tipped them off last month. I'm not even close to my cap this month, as it was reset on the 9th, but still I'm getting nothing now.
Perhaps changing my laptop user agent string is my next plan of attack, I will keep you posted.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
I wasn't even aware tmobile had 10GB plans. Anyways, user agent has helped me in the past when they've tried to block me. I have since stopped receiving notices (even after switching user agent back) however, I have cut back on how much I tether. When they were intercepting me, I was using 80% of my 5GB/month easily each billing cycle. Once I backed down a bit I haven't gotten it.
Also, I had noticed that they only intercepted traffic through browser, so I'm assuming port 80. All other applications I had that used other ports could connect fine. You could possibly use a proxy and get around it.
Change your user agent string or use https:
If I have issues and can't use https: instead I change the user agent. Firefox allows you to do this, so I change my user agent string to match firefox on andriod.
Changing user agent fixed the issue! For now anyway. What a bunch of bastards, I pay $50 a month for 10gb of data and they want to tell me how I can use it. Doooooousche baaaaaagggs!
Ps I downloaded UAPicker for internet explorer to win this battle.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

Tethering and Packet Data, Huge Bill!

Hey! So I have an unlimited data plan on virgin mobile canada that doe not include tethering. In the past I have always tethered using apps like fox fi without any charges so I had assumed I was safe to continue doing so. This month I received a large phone bill because they decided to charge me for tethering. I cant figure out how they determined that i was tethering though. My only clue is that in the last month I have used roms with the built in tethering enabled, specifically free gs3 which includes the tmo tethering app. Could using that app have alerted my carrier that i was tethering whenever I used it?
Also, and I dont mean to beg but I'm broke so if anyone wants to help me out with this bill feel free not that I'm expecting anything but It'd be greatly appreciated aha
Thanks again!
They can't just up and charge you. They must warn you first. You can get in trouble for tethering when you shouldn't but they can't force you to pay for service you didn't ask for. Call them and play dumb. Deny everything. They will warn you to never do it again and read to you the tos....blah blah blah. Basically....call and act stupid.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
My curiosity is getting the best of me if you dont mind me asking how much was the Bill? if you prefer not to say no big deal im just curious how much one can rack up with tethering for a month.......and as far as your question, End answered it perfectly, call and play completely stupid as you have no idea if you have unlimited data how in the heck can they charge, then if they mention the word "tether" say you dont even know what that is and if its a feature that your not suppose to have then why would they allow you to? That seems predatory, I know you used an app but this is all part of it. You can always try things like " I am going to have to contact the BBB" or "Well I am going to hYouave to take my business elsewhere because I have never been accused or treated like this before with a company". Things like that usually work because their number 1 goal is to keep you happy and to keep you as a customer. I just wouldnt even mention the word "Tether" unless they do, but dont ever say too much play stupid and simple you know I use my phone for calls and texts and web browsing. Things like that.
Take Care and Good Luck
PS. If you are El Broke O' and they dont budge on the phone after doing the ABOVE you can always setup a payment plan with them. They should always allow that. You just tell them what you can afford and they will usually always agree. Believe me they just want to get their money doesnt matter how or when as long as you are paying. Because most people just say screw them and go somewhere else without paying.
No offense, however, in your OP you clearly stated that tethering was not included in your package and you tethered. What did you expect your carrier to do? Surprise!
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
SaneinOne said:
No offense, however, in your OP you clearly stated that tethering was not included in your package and you tethered. What did you expect your carrier to do? Surprise!
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
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He knows that, he just wants to know how the carrier figured out he was tethering.
using native carrier tethering apps hacked to give free access would absolutely alert them to your behavior...that and excessive amounts of data used in a small amount of time
also keep in mind excessive amounts of data can also mean signifigantly more than your average use from past months...they got their clue somehow, time to own up and pay my friend!
thanks guys! Yeah im not mad that i was charged doing something i wasnt suposed too, i guess it must have been the stock app. Anyways I was told the email address of some corporate guy at virgin so hopefully I can work something out with him, thanks for all your advice!
I would imagine it has something to do with a different APN setting.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
So would the cm10 setup give you up?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
If tethering is not part of your plan then I would suggest operating under the premise that tethering is tethering as far as a carrier is concerned.
X10D3 said:
So would the cm10 setup give you up?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
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Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
More likely than not, it was the wi-fi drivers that gave you away. I'm not sure about the exact details, but I believe that when you tether via wifi (using the phone's wifi interface as an access point), the datagrams from traffic routed through the wifi interface look identifiably different from traffic originating within the phone itself.
I don't know anybody who's ever gotten caught tethering via ADB (Easytether, etc). I've seen a lot of people get busted for tethering via wifi.
Remember, carriers go for low-hanging fruit, and wifi tethering is an easy target. It's not even a matter of spyware or deep packet inspection. I think it's actually a single bit in the datagram that's clear for phone-originated traffic, and set for routed traffic. ADB-based apps aren't affected, because all network traffic passing through them is by definition to or from the host via ADB. In contrast, wifi/bluetooth-tethered traffic returned to the phone might be for a local app, or it might be for one routed through the phone. The phone's network stack uses the bit as an easy, low-impact way to make its job easy and figure out whether it needs to pass the traffic to a local app on the phone, or just hand it over to the wifi driver for further routing.
I believe that if you wanted to safely tether via wifi, you'd basically have to run a PPP server on the phone, connect to it from the client PC via wifi, then the PPP server running on the phone would take the traffic and treat it the same way EasyTether would, so to Android it looked exactly like app-originated traffic (because it basically is; the fact that the app is originating it on behalf of a connected client is none of Android's business).
If you want to make your tethering foolproof, tether to the phone via ADB, and tunnel it to the internet via some thirdparty VPN (I use a company called ibvpn.com; it's around $3/month if you pay by the year, and also comes in handy for safely using unencrypted wifi in public places with a tablet).
They can tell no matter how you do it and most of the carriers, at least in the US, are now activly looking for people doing this. They can tell by the obvious jump in traffic, but other ways as well. Broswer signatures, etc. It's really very simple for them to pick it up just by watching your data flow, has nothing to do with your handset it's self.
If your PC/Mac-originated traffic is being regenerated by an Android-hosted app like EasyTether (so it officially originated with the Android app, as opposed to having been routed by the wifi driver and kernel iptables), it would be extraordinarily difficult for the carrier to figure out its true nature without deep packet inspection. If you tunnel it over an IPsec VPN using PPTP or L2TP, it would be damn near impossible for them to establish tethering with enough certainty to ever prevail in court unless you were literally tethering daily as your primary means of getting online, as opposed to tethering once in a while when you lacked better access options (airport, beach, car, etc).
Traffic analysis can certainly SUGGEST tethering and get you flagged for an automatic nastygram informing you that it's going to be added to your plan unless you complain, but if you're using an ADB-type tethering method and tunneling, you could tell your carrier to go f**k themselves and prove it with a very high degree of confidence. If you have a data plan that's tiered, I can't fathom them investing the resources to prove that you're tethering once in a while. In the AT&T context, somebody who's tethering on a regular basis with a tiered data plan is going to go over 5 gigs and end up paying the same amount he'd have paid to openly tether anyway, and somebody who's only tethering occasionally & not exceeding 3 gigs/month wouldn't be worth the effort to track down.
Add the fact that most carriers (in the US, at least) either rate-limit your traffic after 5 gigs (or less), or (in the case of Sprint) will actively dump you as a customer if you routinely exceed 5 gigs month after month after month (as if anyone could actually exceed 5 gigs over their glacial, dysfunctional network anyway), and the business case for aggressive tethering enforcement that goes beyond looking for routing signatures in the datagram becomes almost nonexistent.
Now, if you have an unlimited data plan that they're itching to terminate and force you into a tiered plan, they might try a little harder... but if their payback potential is an extra $10/month (because you have a tiered plan and you're already paying them $40/month for 3 gigs plus an extra gig, instead of paying $50/month for 5 gigs you might not fully use), they aren't going to bother, especially if you push back. Remember, there are data privacy laws, and most of the things they'd have to do to prove tethering if you're actively obfuscating and tunneling your traffic are borderline greyhat hacking. A big corporation isn't going to risk getting smacked down by federal regulators over pocket change. They're going to shake down the easy targets, and move along.
Insofar as deep packet inspection goes, remember... it might be easy to gather enough evidence for them to auto-send a nastygram and auto-subscription notice, but it's HARD to gather enough evidence for them to risk pursuing a case against someone who's actively fighting back. Five years ago, it might have been easy to notice tethering from a J2ME, Blackberry, or PalmOS smartphone by looking for implausible traffic. Nowadays, there's very little traffic that couldn't plausibly be generated directly by an Android phone. RDP and VNC? Check. IPsec VPN? Check. SQL client? Check. SSH? Check. Bittorrent? Check. (Suicidal and insane, but plausible). Desktop browser identifiers? Nope. Android's own browser can spoof desktop browsers with casual ease (about:debug, then menu->Settings).
The way to win against your carrier is to make victory too expensive for them to bother with. They're looking for easy ways to boost revenue, not embarking on a moral crusade to stamp out tethering. Make victory more expensive for them than stalemate, and they'll leave you alone.
So when I turn on the mobile AP in CM, they can track that? What if I used the AP and turned on my BTGuard VPN? Then it's just encrypted traffic. I only used it for tethering my WIFI tablet. So the apps that used the connection were nearly/if not identical to the ones on my phone. Most of the time I'm running CM on my tablet as well.
So your saying if i tether via usb using an app like tether by clockworkmod from the play store i should be good?
And if I argue enough and don't shutup then they will most likely drop the charges?
I can't give any concrete assurances. I've never seen how the others work, and I can't promise that they don't do anything that would give it away. All I can say is that I've tethered in moderation for years via ADB using EasyTether and ibvpn.com ($3/month if you pay 12 months at a time, and handy for using your tablet via wifi in public places where encryption isn't otherwise used). I've never been hassled. Chances are, when I DO use it, I end up using less data anyway than somebody who streams videos from Netflix, Amazon, and Blockbuster.
At the end of the day, if you have an unlimited data plan and you're using it as your primary means of internet access, they're eventually going to find a pretense for getting rid of you regardless of what you say or do. Used in moderation once in a while, with reasonable precautions to make your tethering non-blatantly-obvious, you should be fine. Like I said, you're dealing with private companies, not government agencies out for jihad. They aren't going to waste 3 hours of a $20/hour employee's time researching your use just so they can quibble with you over a few dollars per month, especially if they're already getting most of it from you anyway in the form of fees for additional gigabytes of data. They're going to cast their net far and wide, skim off the easy pickings who don't know any better than to use bare wifi without obfuscation, then focus on the guys using 10-20 gigs of data per month or more.
Be discreet, keep your head down, act insulted if they confront you, and you should be fine.
^ pretty much what I thought
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

Notice from At&T -Tethering

Recently got a text and Letter from AT&T stating that I've been caught tethering on my unlimited (grandfathered in) data plan. I called and the said this was my last warning before they turn my unlimited plan off for good and switch me to the 5GB plan.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? Should I be worried - concerned if I still want to tether?
I currently use the most up to date version of AOKP JB - and have been since i got the SGS 3.
Thoughts?
axel4401 said:
Recently got a text and Letter from AT&T stating that I've been caught tethering on my unlimited (grandfathered in) data plan. I called and the said this was my last warning before they turn my unlimited plan off for good and switch me to the 5GB plan.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? Should I be worried - concerned if I still want to tether?
I currently use the most up to date version of AOKP JB - and have been since i got the SGS 3.
Thoughts?
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Are you tethering a laptop, desktop? I haven't seen a message yet (knocks on wood!) but I only tether my tablet.
I would suggest you stop or they will switch you off unlimited. I tethered once for about 50mb worth of data and I got a letter in the mail from them.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
With tmobile we can switch our apn settings to get around them knowing about tethering. Not sure if there's anything like that for ATT, but figured I'd mention it.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
Considering you can never get that plan back if they switch it, you should decide how much that's worth to you. If you'll never go over with just the phone, then it won't be that big a loss. If it were me, I'd stop tethering, and keep the unlimited data since the data costs keep bumping up in $5 or $10 increments.
If it were me, I'd call and talk only to a supervisor. Ask them how they can prove you're thethering. If they give you crap about having xx # of gigs used of data, be like, yeah, i stream movies every night; i didn't think that would be a problem, since i have "unlimited data"!!!!!! How would i be tethering without a tether plan anyway!?!?!? Etc, etc. Make sure to get their name, extension, etc.
Also, tell them if they change your plan, the terms of your contract no longer apply, and you will be dropping said plan in favor of a new carrier, and will not be paying early termination fees.
Sent from my SGS III
Swiftks said:
If it were me, I'd call and talk only to a supervisor. Ask them how they can prove you're thethering. If they give you crap about having xx # of gigs used of data, be like, yeah, i stream movies every night; i didn't think that would be a problem, since i have "unlimited data"!!!!!! How would i be tethering without a tether plan anyway!?!?!? Etc, etc. Make sure to get their name, extension, etc.
Also, tell them if they change your plan, the terms of your contract no longer apply, and you will be dropping said plan in favor of a new carrier, and will not be paying early termination fees.
Sent from my SGS III
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Agreed with Swiftks !!!! Pretty much they are changing the TOC. So now you can do whatever you want and walk without paying an early termination fee. Hence , if things got even more complicated where they took the stance and remove your grandfather and not let you go.... BBB.ORG is your friend. Trust me. I did it for something else and I walk with a brand new iPhone 4.
Yea.... i'm pretty sure there'd be a flaw to that way of thinking.
A) You are aware of the data package you purchased, that you have unlimited data but are not permitted to tether on that plan, and they still send out a letter/text notifying you as such
B) You might NOT be aware of your inability to tether on the unlimited plan, and since this is not a part of the plan you've selected under contract, a letter and text message is sent out notifying you of this, and warning you that further use would result in your plan being changed to a plan that supports tethering.
C) They switch your plan after your continued tethering use, after providing fair warning about the changes to be made.
Them breaching your contract by changing something around without your knowing beforehand (can't even really think of an example... sorry), i could see the idea of claiming a breach of the terms of your contract being valid and allowing you to terminate the contract fee-free. However, i'm fairly certain the advanced notification of such action being a result of something you are doing would be less breach of contract by the carrier and more misuse of contracted services by the user.... so you'd probably be SoL from a legal standpoint.
And the BBB? HA! They don't do jack sh*t. I tried that to get a company to follow through on the contract that i signed for a wheel & tire warranty, and they kept circling through the same few excuses that they used when i was simply e-mailing them to try to get them to comply. I had documented proof basically disproving every reason they gave for denying my claim, they were denying my claim based on stuff they said was in the contract that i signed that WASN'T in the contract i signed, and the BBB can't do a damn thing either way. So i'm f*cked out of two rims costing like $625 a piece. They even hired an independent appraiser to inspect my rims to see if they were indeed no longer able to hold a seal with the tire (which would warrant replacement if not able to be repaired), and the guy "wasn't able to find any evidence pointing to this". A little air pressure and a splash of water and you could hear air leaking out from 20 feet away.
elementaldragon said:
Yea.... i'm pretty sure there'd be a flaw to that way of thinking.
A) You are aware of the data package you purchased, that you have unlimited data but are not permitted to tether on that plan, and they still send out a letter/text notifying you as such
B) You might NOT be aware of your inability to tether on the unlimited plan, and since this is not a part of the plan you've selected under contract, a letter and text message is sent out notifying you of this, and warning you that further use would result in your plan being changed to a plan that supports tethering.
C) They switch your plan after your continued tethering use, after providing fair warning about the changes to be made.
Them breaching your contract by changing something around without your knowing beforehand (can't even really think of an example... sorry), i could see the idea of claiming a breach of the terms of your contract being valid and allowing you to terminate the contract fee-free. However, i'm fairly certain the advanced notification of such action being a result of something you are doing would be less breach of contract by the carrier and more misuse of contracted services by the user.... so you'd probably be SoL from a legal standpoint.
And the BBB? HA! They don't do jack sh*t. I tried that to get a company to follow through on the contract that i signed for a wheel & tire warranty, and they kept circling through the same few excuses that they used when i was simply e-mailing them to try to get them to comply. I had documented proof basically disproving every reason they gave for denying my claim, they were denying my claim based on stuff they said was in the contract that i signed that WASN'T in the contract i signed, and the BBB can't do a damn thing either way. So i'm f*cked out of two rims costing like $625 a piece. They even hired an independent appraiser to inspect my rims to see if they were indeed no longer able to hold a seal with the tire (which would warrant replacement if not able to be repaired), and the guy "wasn't able to find any evidence pointing to this". A little air pressure and a splash of water and you could hear air leaking out from 20 feet away.
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Yeah, but the burden of proof is on them... How can they prove you are tethering? Simply stating that you are in the top 5% or whatever is not sufficient IMO.
Sent from my SGS III
I got that notice from AT&T.... I tethered for months, my laptop, my tablet, my ipod, ****, i think i even tethered my roku to it once. Took them a few months for them to noticed, then i got the email, the text, and the letter in the mail.
So I called, and they told me what was going on, so i made up abull**** story about how my nephew plays with my phone and maybe he was enabling the internet. I asked her to if she could put a block on tethering on my account and she said sure, because i didn't want it to occur again, she assured me that my phone will not be able to tether with the block and i said thats awesome, i also asked her to make note on my account of what she was assuring me and she did.
i kept on tethering and i still do to this day. no problems so far.
Swiftks said:
Yeah, but the burden of proof is on them... How can they prove you are tethering? Simply stating that you are in the top 5% or whatever is not sufficient IMO.
Sent from my SGS III
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Click to collapse
As many have said in other threads relating to tethering and getting caught, it can probably quite easily be tracked in the packet data transmitted through the network. There's more than likely something different about the way the data is handled that basically throws up a red flag that the data is not intended for the network device.
Voicebox said:
Considering you can never get that plan back if they switch it, you should decide how much that's worth to you. If you'll never go over with just the phone, then it won't be that big a loss. If it were me, I'd stop tethering, and keep the unlimited data since the data costs keep bumping up in $5 or $10 increments.
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Click to collapse
I think I'm just going to go with this one. This kind of sucks though.
I don't even think the word tethering was in the original contract. Oh well, thanks for all the input.
elementaldragon said:
As many have said in other threads relating to tethering and getting caught, it can probably quite easily be tracked in the packet data transmitted through the network. There's more than likely something different about the way the data is handled that basically throws up a red flag that the data is not intended for the network device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every packet is sent with something like a TTL (I don't think this is exactly right, I'm having a brain fart and google searches are fruitless for me right now). Basically they have a number of acceptable hops. On a cell phone, this number is typically pretty low, on a desktop it's often extremely high. This is why people tethering other mobile devices likely don't get noticed. You can also set that value on a desktop/laptop to one higher than the default on your mobile device and the traffic will appear to have originated from your device.
I'm just wondering, how much data did you use in the month(s) before they sent the message?
I am on AT&T and rarely tether but I was wondering if there are apps or a hack to mask this and make the data packets look as if a smartphone device is actually using the data. I have heard of this but I am not sure of what and which carriers it works with. Does anyone know?
annulation said:
I'm just wondering, how much data did you use in the month(s) before they sent the message?
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Click to collapse
Apparently between 2-4 GB. But this whole month, I've been under 1GB - which is funny since this is the month they "caught" me.
This is the key, only tether when you have to. That's the only time I do. When I'm away from my home network and no other possible connection around. The people getting caught are ones who are tethering constantly. Of course they going to see a huge spike in data usage. Spread it out. Especially now with 4g tethering speeds, they will be keeping a close eye. I've found out that I can successfully tether my 4g speeds to my note 10.1 tablet using Foxfi. Neither my SG3 or note 10.1 is rooted or anything. No mods needed to get it to work. I ran speedtests on tethered tablet to sg3 and saw I was getting 4g speeds. Will definitely come in handy when I need it. My data usage normally high anyways with my phone since I have unlimited. So a spike every now and then is nothing..I constantly surf web and sync stuff on my mobile phone. So my data usage is up there on a regular basis.
I think now with faster 4g speeds, more people will get caught because alot more data is flowing. Only tether when you have to. If you tethering on a daily basis as your only means of internet connection(use to be me before I got high speed wireless), they will eventually notice
I got the notice last week - and I haven't tethered since I first got the phone in the beginning of July. It wasn't anything serious, just about 10 minutes of tethering to check emails.
There was about a 2 week period where I didn't have Internet at home since the last tropical storm blew through, so I used my unlimited data to stream Netflix all day and night(on the phone) . I've been under 5gb every month so far, except in July where I used 11gb.
Just know that if they touch my unlimited data I'm taking all 5 of my lines elsewhere...
They look at browser headers (User Agent) to determine if you are tethering (probably among other things). I was NOT tethering and not using over 2gb, but I had my Dolphin browser User Agent set to make my browser look like Windows Firefox to force websites to give me desktop, not mobile versions.
I got nasty threats from ATT to stop tethering. I suspected it was the browser and I made several phone calls to explain. I got nowhere. I stopped using Dolphin and haven't been accused since.
I am always at 5gbs a month then they slow me down once in a while I tether for surf with chrome but its rare , I am supposedly top 5% my ass , before I was on 3rd party employee line using 7-10gbs month.
PS. Solved slow down problem once u hit 5gbs but its pain in the ass to do
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

T-Mobile Unlimited Tethering?

TL;DR (I feel like ranting, so here's the point of this so you don't have to read everything)
PLEASE tell me there is an option for us HTC 10 T-Mobile folks that will DESTROY that throttle?!?!!!!
MY RANT​
I am with T-Mobile and I pay for unlimited data. This pretty much means I pay for 25gigs of data and then continue to pay for "unlimited" data that gets throttled so bad, opening up google.com make me want to carve my eyes out...it is impossible to deal with.
I am a HEAVY data user (I'm at 45.6gigs w/ 14 days left to wait until I get my REAL data back) and I do not have access to Wi-Fi most the day.
I get it...an average person gets unlimited bc it makes them feel good inside knowing they have it of they need it (even though on average sharing 6 or 10 gig's with one other person is more than enough...gogo gadget ex sales associate employee for phones).
But I pay for unlimited bc I NEED it!
They claim that the FCC is the ones that makes them create this throttle point...but a chick at Verizon said its the carriers - so they can save money.
And then they try to justify it with saying that I need to share the love with the other users who pay for 3gig plans...so they get priority in congested areas.
Last time I checked, I'm a paying customer too...and I am paying for your "Truly Unlimited Data Plan"
Shoot me
To for letting me vent
sorry no way to stop it, its on their end, so once you hit that point they will throttle. they can do this since you still have unlimited data, just most of it will be slow
I also notice your Verizon comment, I'm on the unlimited data, with NO throttle point.
@afuller42
That's devastating....but you have unlimited on Verizon?
Were you on it when it was out originally and got grandfathered into it? Also...do you know if I can make my phone work on Verizon's towers? Via some sort of root perk thing?
@Emilicious
yes I was grandfathered into the unlimited plan by Verizon, they have tried many time over the years to get me off of it but I decline. Last phone I bought before the 10 I paid full price ($650) just to keep my plan. At least with the HTC 10 I got to use their payment plan and still keep my UDP.
As for your other question, if you switch to Verizon, yes after flashing a few things, you can use your phone on their towers. Keep in mind though that Verizon doesn't have unlimited anymore and probably wouldn't be good for your amount of data use.
Directv and At&T have become one now, I personally think if you have the tv service this is the next best option for a Unlimited plan, they do throttle but its a "may slow speeds" "peak hours" thing. Heres directly off their site
" After 22GB of data usage on a line in a bill cycle, AT&T may slow data speeds on that line when the network is congested. If congestion ends or you move to an uncongested site, speed will no longer be affected. Regardless of the amount of data usage, no overage charges will apply. See att.com/broadbandinfo for additional network management details." https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/unlimited-plan.html?WT.srch=1
if I lose my UDP from vzw for any reason I will be hoping on at&t, even though I had very bad experiances with their service back in the pre-android flip phone days.
@afuller42 so is it impossible to get these days? Like an email to a man in power couldn't even do it?
@Emilicious
yep "truly" unlimited plans are mostly gone everywhere that I can see. all have a cap or de-priorization after about 20-30gb of data.
metropcs may have a true unlimited plan still. you can check out their website if its in your area https://www.metropcs.com/ it really seems to be a great price ($60 unlimited talk, text, data)and no mention of throttle other than hotspot throttling after 8gb of hotspot use, which on the HTC 10 you can easily bypass that I believe (could be wrong, but I get free hotspot from Verizon on the 10, so could be the same with them) I have no experience with this company though
---------- Post added at 08:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:23 PM ----------
nvm I was wrong metropcs may throttle also at 25gb, but its like at&t and its deprioritize during peak hours-locations
@afuller42 hey do you know anything about vpn servers and if that's an avenue I can take?
This works for unlimited tethering on T-Mobile
https://www.reddit.com/r/hacking/comments/54a7dd/bypassing_tmobiles_tethering_data_capthrottling/
My first work around was to install Debian in a chroot using Linux Deploy. Get yourself sshd running in a chroot on the rooted Android device you will see the options in the Linux Deploy app. Configure the container to start ssh server and remember the user name and password from the initial setup.
You will find many instructions on the Google machine, or you can message me.
From your laptop/computer you need to connect to your phones hotspot after starting the ssh server. Then use ssh/putty to forward your phones SOCKS port.
ssh -D 9999 [email protected]
Change chroot_user to your chroots username. Leave 192.168.43.1 as it is. After successfully logging into the ssh server, you need to set your computer to listen on port 9999(Or whatever port you choose 1080 would be sane) for SOCKS connection.
If your using Windows you need "Putty" for an ssh client and Firefox is a good choice for setting a custom SOCKS port. 192.168.43.1 Is typically the gateway when using Android hotspots. That's AOSP/LOS ROMs that I'm used too.
I was doing that for months, before I found that Reddit post.
So yes it is possible to get around the hotspot cap. Both methods work, but I prefer the method from that Reddit post as it is less off a hassle, also on Linux it works system wide, not just the programs you configure for it.
Reddit link
https://www.reddit.com/r/hacking/comments/54a7dd/bypassing_tmobiles_tethering_data_capthrottling/

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